Three Arkansas police officers have been suspended and a state police investigation has been launched after a video posted on social media showed a suspect being held to the ground and brutally beaten by officers in the town of Arkansas. Mulberry, of about 1,600 inhabitants.
Arkansas State Police said Sunday night they would investigate officers' use of force earlier in the day outside a small grocery store in Mulberry, about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock. Two Crawford County Sheriff's deputies and a Mulberry Police officer have been suspended for these events.
Officers were responding to a tip from a man making threats outside the store, authorities said. State police identified the man as Randall Worcester, 27, of Goose Creek, South Carolina.
Video posted online shows one officer punching Worcester with a clenched fist, while another knees him and a third holds him down. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment Sunday and upon release was booked into the Van Buren County Jail on multiple charges, including second-degree assault, resisting arrest and making terroristic threats, state police said.
Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante said Sunday that the two deputies have been suspended pending an investigation. "I hold all of my employees accountable for their actions and will take appropriate action in this matter," Damante said.
In a statement issued late Sunday, Mulberry Police Chief Shannon Gregory said the city officer involved in the incident is suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. “The City of Mulberry and the Mulberry Police Department take these investigations very seriously,” Gregory said.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said Sunday night on Twitter that the "Crawford County incident will be investigated pursuant to video evidence and prosecutor's request." Mulberry is a small town of about 1,600 people in western Arkansas just off Interstate 40, a major corridor that stretches from California to North Carolina.
